How to engage your team to improve farm results

If you are a leader in your farm, you have certainly already realized that only when people are motivated and engaged they will search for excellence in the processes where they are involved. Usually, an engaged team is more committed to results, so that everyone works towards a common goal: the success of the business.

In order to identify and encourage this attitude among the workers at your farm, you must be able to know the difference between motivation and engagement. Motivation is the result of a series of reasons and personal beliefs, whereas engagement is what makes individuals search for a common goal where they work together. In practice, it is what makes people align their interests with those of the business and together look for common solutions.

Therefore, we could say that engagement is guided by motivation. So, it is up to you to find out what motivates farm workers, so that they engage in your project and try to achieve professional and personal success and the success for the business as a whole.

In the daily routine of pig production, rather simple practices are important to engage people. Everything tends to be better, for example, when a new coworker is properly prepared to perform his activities and is welcome by team, who will explain to him what the farm goals are, making clear how everyone’s jobs contribute to the end result.

Additionally, engagement is based on relationships of trust, respect and transparency that are established among team members and the leadership. In order to strengthen these relationships, follow the tips presented below:

1) Hold participatory meetings with your employees, preferably every week, giving them an opportunity to understand the overall performance of the farm and suggest areas for improvement.

2) Establish a transparent, clear and consistent communication with all those involved in production. This whole process benefits greatly from the use of visual management tools that allow everyone to get to know and interpret information on farm productivity. When the team is looking, for example, at a Production Map during a meeting, the critical points stand out and it becomes easier to set actions and define who will be in charge of solving them.

3) Never leave your coworkers without an answer or with doubts regarding the purpose of management and the goals set for the farm.

4) Encourage, stimulate and work on training of your team for the performance of activities and also for their professional development. The better prepared the team members are, the more engaged they will become.

Be assured that these four attitudes, which are not complex at all, will help you build a highly committed and efficient team. The more engaged with the business your team members are, the more they will work together, aligned and focused to reach your goals. When everyone feels they are important for the achievement of the final result, because they know their role and their share of contribution, the business will be positively impacted in different ways:
• The team will work with a focus;
• Less waste;
• People will unite towards the goals;
• Increased productivity;
• Overall improvement of farm results.

So, be assured that an engaged team will be much more productive!

Please tell us: how do you encourage the engagement of your coworkers?